Sirenz

Sirenz by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman stars Meg and Shar, roommates who couldn't be anymore different. The two put up with each other but are not friends. They meet up over Christmas vacation to go shopping and have a horrible fight over a pair of shoes that ends up with one of them accidentally pushing a boy in front of a subway. A man then shows up and claims to be Hades. He offers the two a chance to get out of trouble if they will work for him as sirens and lure a man to the underworld. The girls are each given a power to help them do their job but when they use the power they transform into bird like sirens. The girls encounter many adventures and obstacles along the way and learn to appropriate each others differences and become friends.

Sirenz is a fun paranormal comedy. The idea of the girls working for Hades as sirens is different and I appreciated that the girls worked together to solve their problem showing their strength and without needing a man to come to the rescue. While there is a love interest and each girl works through romantic situations this is a story of girl power (with a little fashion on the side). Shaz and Meg both grow as characters throughout the story and have a lot of fun. I really liked that this book's premise and plot was so original and that it didn't follow any of the formulas that are so popular in the paranormal genre lately. Hades was a great seedy villain along with Persephone and Demeter.

Appropriateness: This book doesn't have any adult content, the girls are too busy to go to parties or hook up with guys. The girls are seniors in high school and they get a job working as interns for a designer and live in an apartment by themselves. I would recommend this book to teens 12+ and feel that the older end of the YA audience would enjoy this as well as the younger. It read more like a Family Channel TV movie rather than one on the Disney Channel.